


Not so bad

by thecouchwitch



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Fluff, M/M, cecilos - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-22 09:52:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/911830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecouchwitch/pseuds/thecouchwitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short drabble in which Carlos is tempted to leave and finds a reason not to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not so bad

**Author's Note:**

> Just some quick cuteness. It's not edited so I'm sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes! It's my first Night Vale fanfiction, please enjoy.

"I hate this town.” Carlos muttered to himself as he set at his lab bench, the heels of his palms pressed against his eyes in a futile attempt to stem the migraine that was threatening to form. He wasn't a hateful or angry man, but he figured he was allowed to get frustrated when he'd just spent the morning taking samples from a river full of literal fire and running from a five year old girl with a giant spider for legs, only to come home to discover the gravity in his lab had reversed and the ceiling was now the floor. It wasn't too bad, compared to the first two things, but he got nauseous every time he looked out the window, and he'd already accidentally stepped on two light bulbs.  
Reluctantly, he lowered his hands, replaced the rectangular frames of his glasses back on his nose, and reached for the packet of pain killers. He was burned and bruised, and this town was simply too weird.   
He had known it would be weird, he had seen the news and read the reports, but when accepting the job, he'd only been focused on the prospect of scientific discovery. The scientist hadn't realised it would take this much of a toll on his sanity and anxiety. Being a scientist was a generally stressful job, and you had to be aware of the dangers and be able to deal with them, but this was just too much, far too unpredictable.

None of this was science, it was... It was magic and curses and government conspiracies, and none of it made sense, and although he'd only been here a couple of weeks, he was fed up.  
He washed down a couple of capsules with some soda and looked over at the phone on the desk, dark eyes narrowing. It would be so easy to pick it up and call headquarters, to request a transfer and go back to his normal job involving normal scientific discoveries and tests. Wonderful wonderful boredom and normality, no more ghosts asking for his Wi-Fi password or hooded figures following him in the night and whispering in a language that sounded like television static. He adjusted his glasses and reached for the hand piece.

A knock at the door Carlos's attention and his hand stopped inches from the phone. He heard it being opened by one of his co-workers, and he strained his ears to hear in curiosity and dread, fearing someone was reporting that a giant squid was attacking the down-town shopping plaza or something, but in the room he was in, at the back of the building, he could only gather the visitor was a male. The muffled conversation lasted a couple of minutes, then the door was shut. Seconds later, his fellow scientist came into the room, being careful to avoid the light bulb sticking out of the floor/ceiling as he approached the desk.

“Present for you.” A small bouquet of flowers was placed on his desk. Carlos blinked in confusion at it; they were pretty flowers that resembled daffodils, but they didn't look like any breed he'd ever seen; the petals were fire-engine red and appeared to be faintly glowing, for one thing. The scent from them was strong, and smelled far more closer to a pleasant New Car Smell than a flower. His co-worker, a shorter man named Han, apparently noticed his concern. “Don't worry, he told me they're harmless. Though you never know with this place, so run if they start breathing smoke.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Carlos picked them up cautiously to examine them more closely. There was a pink gift card seated amongst the petals. As Han left to go get a reading off one machine or another, Carlos gingerly removed the card and read the message, written in extremely neat and professional scrawl.

_Dear Carlos, I noticed you have been extremely busy lately, so I hope these will brighten your day. Your office always smells musty whenever I come over to interview you, probably because your lab used to be a funeral parlour before you moved in, and I know from personal experience how distracting and stress-inducing the lingering smell of decay can be. Please don't work too hard.  
_ _~Cecil Baldwin_

Cecil Baldwin, the local radio personality. As weird and dangerous and non-binary as the town was, it's people were even weirder because despite all the oddity and the death, they all went on with their happy little lives. Cecil was the codifier of these things; he'd only met him a couple times, and hadn't actually tried listening to his radio show yet due to his sizable workload, but he'd always been unfailingly polite and friendly and interested in what Carlos had to say, even when Carlos accidentally went into a scientific tangent.  
At first he'd thought of Cecil as strange, just another fixture in a strange location, another subject to study, but... In defiance of the horror around him, in their brief meetings, Cecil was there with his warm smile and sincerity, and despite himself, seeing the strange man always made his chest feel warm. The dark haired scientist stood up and went to the kitchen in search of a vase, the idea of the phone call completely abandoned. The town really wasn't that bad if you thought about it.


End file.
